College

Pittsburgh's J.J. Moore (44), tries a shot after getting by Notre Dame's Tom Knight in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

The Irish missed 18 of their first 19 shots and trailed 19-3 as late as 13:54 into the game. However, they rallied to take the lead in the second half and won going away.

Eric Atkins added 10 points and seven assists for Notre Dame (21-6, 9-5 Big East), which has won five in a row over Pittsburgh (20-7, 8-6) and snapped a tie with the Panthers for fourth place in the conference. The top four teams get a double-bye in next month's league tournament.

Justin Jenkins added 12 points and Maurice Barrow chipped in 10 points for the Stags, who have won six of their last seven games.

Fairfield (17-11, 8-7 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) trailed 61-54 with 3:48 remaining but outscored Iona 9-0 over the next 3 minutes to take a 63-61 lead. Lamont Jones converted a three-point play with 21 seconds showing to help Iona (15-12, 9-7) regain the lead but Needham's trey on the Stags' next possession sealed it.

Fairfield dished out 17 assists, compared to eight for Iona.

Jones finished with 29 points for Iona, which has lost five of its last six games by a combined 10 points. Sean Armand (14 points) hit two 3s and broke Iona's all-time single-season record of 96 by one.

The win keeps alive the chance for an NCAA at-large bid for Villanova (17-10, 8-6 Big East), which has won four of its last five. The Wildcats overcame a poor first half and a 12-point second-half deficit.

Myles Mack had a game-high 24 points for Rutgers (13-12, 4-10), which has lost eight of its last nine games.

Rutgers played without leading scorer Eli Carter, who fractured his right fibula in Saturday's loss at DePaul. Carter, who averaged 14.9 points per game, will miss the rest of the season.

Mouphtaou Yarou had 12 rebounds and 10 points for Villanova, which had five players score in double figures. James Bell added 11 points.

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Mark wrote on Feb 19, 2013 4:20 PM:

" It was a miracle, so to speak, for the Irish to comeback from such a terrible start to the game. I was in my office at DISH this morning when one of my coworkers stepped in for a sec and said he was happy to see Notre Dame working on that double bye for next monthâ€™s tournament. I missed the game last night, but I set a timer for it on my DISH Hopper so I can watch it later. I like to catch up with marquee games on my days off from work and I can do that and not need to delete any of my saved programs for space because my DVR holds up to 2,000 hours of entertainment. "

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